Dorset's top police officer Chief Constable Amanda Pearson has been looking back on the past year and passes on her through to Dorchester Nub News readers:

AS we approach the end of 2023, I wanted to reflect on the fantastic work of our 3,071 officers, staff and volunteers in delivering a safer Dorset over the past 12 months.

I've now spent nine months as Dorset's Chief Constable, and having brought up my family here, I was honoured to join this organisation and lead such an incredible set of people.

Throughout the year, our contact management team have answered 144,000 calls to 999, 150,000 calls to our 101 service as well as 25,000 online crime and intelligence reports. We've seen around 4,500 in person visits to our enquiry offices alongside a reopening trial at Lyme Regis, Blandford and Swanage.

To serve our communities, our officers and staff driving our fleet of 450 vehicles have travelled over 3.65 million miles throughout the county to attend 57,000 incidents, making over 8,500 arrests. 

We have continued to protect vulnerable members of our community, finding 4,392 missing people and referring 33,000 adults and children to our multi-agency safeguarding hubs for police and partners such as the local authority and healthcare teams to support them.

We've also responded to 31,000 concerns for welfare and a further 8,700 incidents where a member of the public was experiencing a mental health crisis. Over the coming year we will be working with our partners in the NHS to ensure those in mental health crisis receive the right care at their time of need from a medical professional.

As a police service, sadly we must also react to tragic events with professionalism, tenacity and compassion. We demonstrated this following the tragic deaths of Joe Abbess and Sunnah Khan on Bournemouth beach, the murder of Cameron Hamilton in Bournemouth town centre and the recent murder of Simon Shotton following the discovery of human remains in Boscombe.

Alongside that we continue to disrupt drug supply as part of Operation Scorpion and Operation Viper by focussing on organised criminality and those who prey on our communities.

Meanwhile our roads policing and family liaison officers have supported 329 people who have been seriously injured on our road network and the families of 14 people who sadly lost their lives. Our road safety team detected over 66,000 offences where drivers were caught speeding or driving through red lights with around half receiving an educational input on making better choices behind the wheel and the other half either receiving points and a fine or a trip to court. One driver who went to court was found to be driving at 97mph in a 30mph zone in Corfe Mullen – three times the limit.

It is not just our operational colleagues who deserve recognition, but our enabling services teams too. Our recruitment team have worked hard to deliver uplift, recruiting 185 police officers and 153 police staff over the past 12 months. Meanwhile colleagues in finance, IT, administration, fleet, communications, people, business change and many others have been working hard to enable us to deliver policing in our communities.

However, policing couldn't function without the support of our 218 special constables and police support volunteers who have contributed 32,294 hours throughout the year. In addition, our community speed watch volunteers monitored the speeds of over half a million vehicles, issuing warning letters to 12,600 motorists. A big thank you to all of our volunteers for dedicating their time to be part of our policing family and giving back to their communities.

I joined policing to make a difference, and here we are not only motivated by that, but are achieving it in so many ways and across all parts of the organisation. We work collaboratively and don't strive for individual glory or ego. I have seen our people come together in times of crisis and go the extra mile, work additional hours, support each other during trauma to keep themselves well and deliver exceptional policing for Dorset.

Dorset is a police force where people care and where the values of public service, integrity and professionalism run deep.

I would like to thank every officer, member of staff and volunteer for their commitment in making Dorset a safe county for everyone. We are one of the safest counties in the country, which is a testament to the hard work and determination of everyone to be tough on crime, keep people safe and put our victims and witnesses first.

Policing is more than a job, it's a vocation and our people sometimes may not make that family celebration, may be quieter than usual around their family after a difficult shift or may not socialise with friends as regularly anymore. For all those times, and others too, I want to thank those who support them, offering your understanding and compassion.

I wish our people and our communities a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.